Archive for ‘what about teh menz?’

A little over a year ago in May, 2011, Ms. Julie Bindel wrote a fabulous piece here at the Hub titled, “What About The Men?” The piece was radical and amazing. Late last night, I ran across this post over at Gender Trender. It’s an interview of Juile Bindel by male “transgender” Paris Lees conducted earlier this year. Apparently, in the year since she first wrote for the Hub, Ms. Bindel has done an about-face on the issue of “What about the men?”.

I can only wonder, what happened between now and then? Are aliens abducting radical feminists and replacing them with pod people?!

Back then, Julie Bindel was defending women-only space and saying how not enough has changed to invite men to the party. Some excerpts from Julie Bindel’s post at the Hub:

Recently, male-to-female transgender Joelle Ruby Ryan pointed out how well organized, well-supported and well-attended the 11th annual Philadelphia Trans-Health Conference (PTHC) was expected to be, and contrasted that to the relatively tiny and unsupported Radfem 2012 conference which has had to relocate after trans* activists successfully lobbied for its booking to be canceled by London’s Conway Hall.

Hope you are well. I am writing to ask the National Center for Transgender Equality to weigh in on a controversy that has pitted Lesbians, many of whom have been “good” allies to the Transgender community, and Transgender women. I am sure you have heard of it – the “Cotton Ceiling,” a term porn actress Drew DeVeaux and other Transgender women use to “challenge lesbians’ tendency to support Transgender causes generally but draw the line at sleeping with Transgender women or including Transgender lesbians in their sexual communities.”

“There is no arena in which rape takes place between men and women that it does not take place between men and men[.]”

Like women, men who are raped feel violated and ashamed and may become severely depressed or suicidal. They are at increased risk for substance abuse, problems with interpersonal relationships, physical impairments, chronic pain, insomnia and other health problems.

But men also face a challenge to their sense of masculinity. Many feel they should have done more to fight off their attackers. Since they may believe that men are never raped, they may feel isolated and reluctant to confide in anyone. Male rape victims may become confused about their sexual orientation or, if gay and raped by a man, blame their sexual orientation for the rape.

See what they did there? Rape is “X” when it happens to women; rape is “X+1” when it happens to men. Of course, the Times would probably deny that’s what they said if they were ever asked about it, but look, folks: the math doesn’t lie.

Not so long ago, I read about the child sex abuse scandal at Penn State, and the ensuing firing and arrests of men heralded as leaders of a community for decades, and a flurry of news articles like this one at Huffpost about the ongoing ‘Crisis of Masculinity’. Poor dudes.

To be honest, I never thought too much about bloke stuff before, not since that day walking home from school, I found my 15 year old baby brother squared off against a bunch of other boys, all reeking that feral pubescent testosterone gymclass odour after footy training.

Strong enough to peel your nail-polish and melt your mascara. Really. A lot of ballet position postures and gestures, but with snarling, drooling, and bared frothy canines between the bum-fluff. When I asked what was going on, my brother told me to bugger off, as it was “guy stuff”, and not to tell mum if I knew what was good for me.

in the real world, meaning in the world occupied by men, where womens issues are a nonissue really, and we are only talking about trite, privileged bullshit that doesnt matter anyway…credibility matters. journalists have to disclose any possible conflicts of interest when they are reporting on a story, so that any possible bias on their part is vetted. and if the politician they are covering turns out to be their third cousin or something, the story might be given to someone else entirely. you know, to avoid the appearance of impropriety. to avoid the stench of fish. or to, most importantly, maintain the value of some rich white mans stock in publicly traded media outlets.

What would life look like FOR MEN if feminism succeeded? Liberal doods have a brand-new book that purports to reveal the mystery: The Guy’s Guide to Feminism by Michael Kimmel and Michael Kaufman. The Michaels – known for Guyland and the White Ribbon Campaign, respectively – have written “a fun, quick read that makes the case that feminism is as good for men as it is for women.” An excerpt:

I gave this speech to kick off discussion around the threat of male invasion of women-only spaces at the SCUM Radical Feminist Conference that Amazon ManCrusher and I organised in Perth, Australia on the 23rd-25th of September. The conference was a blast from start to finish and this discussion was especially passionate.

Wow, that FCM post on the dickwad self-proclaimed sperminator and “molester” sponsoring Baltimore SlutWalk really raised my blood pressure, and my awareness. Minutes later my spamtastic email informed me of today’s SlutWalk at the University of Connecticut. Well, who the hell’s sponsoring that one I wondered? Lordy, it’s co-sponsored by Matt Tuscano, a student at UConn.

so here we are again. another slutwalk, another sex-positive man organizing it, standing behind women (but not in a creepy way!) and supporting womens god-given right to be sexually penetrated by men. now thats good faux-feminism! and it gets even better than that: this particular dood as recently as earlier today went by the internet handle “molester” on internet forum “formspring”. you know, because sexual assault is funny, and stuff and things. alas, the women who allowed this dood to “help” them pull off slutwalk baltimore probably shouldve done a background check; or at the very least, followed the links he left on his facebook profile, where they wouldve learned about the “molester” thing. oh well! im not blaming the women, really; thats just what happens when you do feminist organizing with men. you have to be super-extra vigilant, and they werent.